A Companion to Hildegard of Bingen

hildegard as musical hagiographer 197
A few elements deserve some discussion here. The lectionary and capitula
contain proper material only for widely celebrated saints, so Disibod’s
absence is no surprise. The community could simply use lessons and chapters
from the Common of Confessors. Although Disibod’s feast and octave
are listed in the table of Gospel readings for 12-lesson feasts (fols 70v–71r),
the table itself appears incomplete; for example, it includes the octave
of the Assumption but not the feast itself. In the antiphoner, Disibod
is one of a few local saints to receive any music (fol. 139),5 yet most of
his offfijice is drawn from the commune sanctorum.6 Unlike some saints
(e.g. Martin and John the Baptist), Disibod does not merit a procession at
vespers, nor is his octave listed in the antiphoner.
The calendar reads much like a martyrology, commemorating a wide
range of saints and at least one feast daily. Like the rest of the manuscript,
the calendar does not identify any church or altar dedications that might
help to localize it. St Disibod is also missing, despite the presence of many
local German saints, including Bodard, Bilihild, Goar, Alban, and Wigbert.
Disibod’s feast and octave reappear in the rather comprehensive collectar
(fol. 190v), where the prayer to him—that his preaching lead the supplicants
from carnal to celestial desires—suggests a community within his
legendary sphere of influence. Disibod is also one of three confessors to
merit extra prayers at the end of the collectar (fol. 195v); Martin receives
three, while Disibod and Benedict each receive two. This subsection also
contains prayers for the Holy Cross, Mary, the Angels, and Sts John the
Baptist, Peter and Paul, and Stephen (all major feasts or saints), suggesting
that Disibod was an important patron of the community that used
the manuscript.
Several features, however, undermine an attribution to the Disibodenberg.
Disibod’s absence from the calendar would, of course, be a telltale
sign, except that codicological evidence suggests that the calendar was
added to the manuscript separately. More signifijicantly, Disibod’s translation,
celebrated at the Disibodenberg alongside the Nativity of Mary on
September 8, appears nowhere. This contrasts with a 12th-century martyrology
from the monastery, which lists all of the feasts for Disibod and
5 These include St Afra, St Alban, and St Gall.
6 The fully notated antiphon Egregie confessor Dei does not appear in the manuscript’s
Common of Saints and thus might be “proper,” or unique to Disibod’s liturgy; its generic
text resembles “common” confessor chants, however, and lacks his name. Also not in the
Common, the hymn Sancte Dysibode nevertheless uses a recycled melody, found, for example,
on the same folio (fol. 139r) for the translation and ordination of St Martin.